/u/CultofFelix on Why is coming out asexual so much harder than when I came out homosexual?

Yes, agree. I wrote this in another thread and compared asexuality to homosexuality:

I recall from my own experience that it's difficult to explain the concept of asexuality to people who aren't asexual themselves. Maybe this is because a lot of people don't differentiate between sexual attraction and romantic attraction, and I assume for a lot of people sexual attraction and romantic attraction feels the same. Also, the fact that a lot of allos can't properly differentiate between asexuality and celibacy isn't making this easier. Along the lines, a lot of ppl believe that libido is tied to sexuality, or that finding people aesthetically pleasant is also sexual attraction, some would even believe that having functional sexual organs is tied to feeling sexual attraction.

Also, although this is overly simplified and doesn't do the topic much justice: asexuality is difficult to understand as a concept because it is defined negatively. It's essentially the lack of sexual attraction. Whereas a lot of other sexualities are or can be defined positively. Homosexuality for instance can be defined as sexual attraction to members of the same sex (and not as absence of sexual attraction to members of other sex than your own).

August 11, 2021 at 11:48PM